The University of Warwick has relocated its esports centre to its central campus, with the launch taking place during a week of activities around Fusion Fest.
The centre’s new location at Fusion in the Rootes Building includes ‘state-of-the-art’ esports equipment and games, and a bar offering food and drink. The centre is open to students and staff as well as the public and community groups.
The centre features 24 high-end Chillblast PCs featuring AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPUs and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X cards, plus HyperX accessories, Aorus 240Hz quad HD monitors and two Formula E racing simulators.
The news comes after Warwick Uni announced a multi-year partnership with Chillblast last year, before being named the UK’s Esports University of the Year for a record five times in a row.
Amber Hassan, Equal Opportunities Officer at Warwick Esports, said: “The Esports Centre’s new location at Fusion represents the perfect blend between innovation, cutting edge technology and passion.
“Now in the heart of our campus, the centre is the beat of our community, creating an unparalleled gaming space that redefines the esports experience for everyone.”
In a press release, the University of Warwick said it’s ‘committed to developing esports and other creative industries including content creation, immersive technology, and broadcasting (CreaTech)’, and kicked off its official launch event Fusion Fest this week with a programme of activity, which included free play on PCs, consoles and racing sims.
It also featured a demonstration showcasing Hado, a team sport played with up to three people using head-mounted displays and armband sensors, racing tournaments, society tournament takeovers and casual consoles and board games.
Through tournaments, workshops and keynote speeches, attendees explored esports’ impact on education, technology and business.
Mick McLaughlin, Business Development Manager (CreaTech), said: “Fusion Fest represents a pivotal moment in our journey towards innovation, excellence, and CreaTech.
“With the relocation of our new Esports Centre to a more prominent location we are not only creating a destination, but we’re also embracing emerging technologies and fostering a vibrant community where creativity thrives, and boundaries are pushed.”
The University of Warwick invested £275,000 in its first esports centre research hub and competition venue three years ago.
The Centre is open Monday to Friday from 11am to 11pm and on weekends from 2pm to 11pm. Bookings are open for pay to play sessions, social events, business events, skills programmes and school experiences. Enquiries can be made through the Warwick Esports website.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
